If you read my last post I hope there were two things that made an impact on you:

The video - I hope you were as appalled as I was to think that students could advance that far academically and have such misconceptions.

The need for formative assessment - we must constantly monitor student understanding and look for ways to clear up misconceptions.

Ok - great. You were appalled and you want to assess learning - how about some ideas, huh?

I advocated a mindset of planning what students should be doing in order to learn as opposed to planning what to talk about. One thing that students can do that will help them construct knowledge and understanding is create concept maps. They help students learn and give the teacher great insight into their thinking and learning.Concept maps have been around for a long time; nothing new there. I have used them with my kids and frankly, I use them myself. What's new to me is the underlying theory behind them and WHY they work. I am including a link to a study conducted by Joseph D. Novak and Alberto J. Canas while at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. They investigated the theory underlying concept maps as well as how to construct and use them.I have to say, I thought my mind would pop from the pedagogical insights I gained from reading the first twelve pages. I hope you will take the time to read it as well. You will even find a link to freeconcept mapping software - what a deal.

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My name is Gary Strickland. I teach physics and IPC to high school students in rural Texas. I taught science for nine years in our middle school. Coleman is a one to one environment where all students in grades 4-12 have a laptop. I have been teaching in a tech-rich environment for over eight years. I teach using the flipped model of instruction. This blog is intended to chronicle that process.